


Machinations

by joeyjames (lilyandjoey)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry is suspicious, Kissing, Post-Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-10
Updated: 2007-10-10
Packaged: 2017-10-27 01:31:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyandjoey/pseuds/joeyjames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry just knows that Zabini is planning something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Machinations

  
The last few months had been fairly strange all in all. Voldemort was finally gone. Dead in a way that he couldn’t possibly come back from, though no one quite believed that – after all, they thought he was gone forever last time and look how that turned out. The last few months had mostly been about rebuilding what was destroyed during the war, and replacing things that couldn’t be restored to what they once were. And about mourning those who were irrevocably lost in the wave of violence and destruction.

Hogwarts had been repaired and was forever changed. Some parts of it withstood the onslaught so admirably that you couldn’t tell they were ever threatened, but others were clearly new. Some of the staircases were more unpredictable than ever before, and others had refused to move since. Students old and new were learning their way around the castle – familiar routes had been lost, and many of the older students stopped abruptly in strange places, wondering how on earth they’d get to lessons on time when part of their route had ceased to exist.

Minerva McGonagall was Headmistress now and coping admirably in difficult circumstances. No one knew just how long she spent working out which students would be returning, and what year they should be in due to the interruption to their studies. Age groups were mixed together to compensate for the school year many had missed all or parts of.

It was eight weeks into the autumn term. Harry and Hermione were sitting opposite each other at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. Neither was willing to admit to the other that they really missed Ron (again). He had decided not to return to school in favour of helping George get the shop up and running again. They both knew that George needed Ron far more than they did. Hermione wanted to have the qualifications she had spent six years working for and Harry didn’t know what to do with his life yet, so finishing school seemed like a good place to start.

“He’s watching you again,” Harry said in quiet indignation.

“Who?” Hermione responded casually as she picked up another slice of toast.

“Zabini!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Harry,” Hermione said firmly, looking down at her Arithmancy textbook as she ate her buttered toast.

Though no one was currently trying to kill him, Harry was still suffering from paranoia. When Hermione had started working on an Arithmancy project with Blaise Zabini a few weeks earlier, Harry had started to hold suspicions about Zabini’s intentions which had gradually escalated and were currently reaching crisis point. Though he knew he was starting to sound whiny, Harry just couldn’t stop himself.

“Hermione! He could be planning something,” Harry said, trying to keep his voice level.

“Oh yes?” Hermione said distractedly.

“Something … I dunno, something _nasty_ ,” he finished lamely.

Hermione put her book down and fixed her gaze on her best friend of seven years.

“Harry. Zabini is not looking at me. Nor is he planning ‘something nasty’ for me or for you,” she said with conviction.

“But Hermione, you don’t know where he’s _been_.”

Hermione sighed and pushed a few stray hairs out of her face.

“For the last time,” she said, voice low with exasperation, “Zabini spent the last academic year in a villa in southern Spain. His mother saw the way the wind was blowing and decided to get out and take her son with her. I quite frankly don’t blame her. In case you’d forgotten, my parents now live on the other side of the world because I did what I had to do to keep them safe. He didn’t choose a side because he didn’t have to, not for any of the nefarious reasons you have mapped out in your head. Now will you shut up about bloody Zabini?”

Harry looked down at his plate and pushed his toast around mutinously.

“Fine,” he said in a sulky tone.

~~~~~~~

Harry knew that Hermione would absolutely kill him if she caught him doing this, but he had to make sure she was safe. She had been working on this Arithmancy project with Zabini for weeks now and they didn’t seem anywhere near finished. He was sure Zabini was stalling somehow so that Hermione would have to keep meeting with him. The way Zabini watched Hermione at mealtimes and all other available opportunities was making Harry very uncomfortable as well. It was almost _predatory_. Harry was sure Zabini was planning something bad. He may not know what Zabini was planning, why he was targeting Hermione, or when he was going to do something, but those were mere details to be dealt with later.

Harry slipped on his invisibility cloak and made his way carefully out of Gryffindor tower. He didn’t have long to get to the third floor classroom where Hermione was meeting Zabini and hide – he could see from the map that Hermione was heading that way from the Library and Zabini was leaving the Slytherin dungeons. He took a twisting route as fast as he could, glad that this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. There was no chance of him arriving first had he not planned ahead. The castle layout had changed in the strangest of ways. Harry glanced at the map now and then, to see Hermione stopping and changing direction several times on her way to the classroom. Out of breath, Harry darted straight for the cupboard in the corner and collapsed into it. He shut the door behind him and charmed it so that he could see out, but others could not see in.

A few minutes later Hermione arrived. She put her bag down on a desk and started to get out her textbooks, and scraps of paper with notes on in her neat, precise handwriting. Zabini arrived while she was organising her things. They greeted each other and he joined her at the desk, adding things to the collections of books and papers. They sat next to each other and Zabini was a little too close to Hermione for Harry’s liking.

Harry watched from the cupboard almost two hours while Hermione and Zabini worked. He couldn’t make out much of what they were saying, just occasional garbled words about a subject he had never studied. It didn’t make a lot of sense to him. They were taking notes and working out equations, sometimes sharing textbooks and writing little comments on each others notes. They argued a few times, and Harry sat up a little straighter thinking this was the bit where Zabini tried to hex her and he leapt out from the cupboard to save the day, but it was just about Arithmancy. Apparently Zabini was just as opinionated and stubborn as Hermione. As far as Harry could tell they were arguing the toss about really trivial things but neither was willing to back down. It was incredibly boring.

Then, Zabini said something that Harry didn’t quite catch in a forceful tone and Hermione snapped at him irritably. For some reason that Harry couldn’t fathom, they both started laughing. It must have been a geeky Arithmancy joke or something. Zabini and Hermione turned to face each other as they laughed. They stopped laughing as they realised exactly how close they were sitting, their faces just inches apart.

“Blaise …” Hermione said.

 _Since when does she call him Blaise?_ Harry thought to himself.

Zabini tilted his head slightly and closed the gap between them. He brought one hand up to tangle in Hermione’s hair as he kissed her. She stiffened for a brief moment, then relaxed and kissed him back. It was clearly the first time this had happened. They were awkward with each other, touching tentatively. Zabini pulled Hermione closer to him and kissed her harder. She let out a low moan and he pulled away gently. They paused for a moment.

“I have to go,” Hermione said suddenly, “I said I’d help Harry with his homework.”

She hurriedly grabbed her things and put them back into her bag. Zabini didn’t comment when she accidentally picked up some of his notes.

“Thursday?” he asked as she reached the door.

“Thursday,” she replied, meeting his smile with one of her own.

Zabini slowly stood up and collected up his things. He looked very pleased with himself all the while. He paused in the doorway and turned back to face the empty classroom.

“You can come out now, Potter,” he said with a grin, before walking confidently out of the door.


End file.
